Tales of the Vaguely Useless
Jun. 16th, 2004 12:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mousmeSo, yes. My first day on the job, and I did next to squat.
That's because the woman who's supposed to be training me is frankly too busy to train me, and the supervisor who hired me floats around the office, also presumably too busy to train me, but managing not to look as busy.
Natalie, the nice woman I'm working with, is a hoot and a half, but going insane with work.
The company is Erb Transport, and they do food delivery, which is a fast-paced and exciting world. Or fast-paced, anyway. Everything is supposed to be somewhere yesterday, and it's always late and there always seems to be problems with everything. Which is where Nat comes in. She solves all the problems. In an ideal world, anyway.
They're backlogged six ways 'til Sunday, but I had nothing to do, which made it even worse for me. I didn't understand a damned thing that was going on, or perhaps ten or fifteen percent of what was happening. It's a completely different world, and when I fucked up even using the fax machine it was all I could do not to throw up my hands and hit my head against the nearest wall. In my defense, they have this weird-ass photocopier/fax-machine that prints out confirmations upside-down, so I thought the fax hadn't gone through properly, and I sent it twice. It wasn't huge, but it was just the cap to a long day of frustrations.
I kept trying to teach myself how to do things, but there was nothing for me to learn. There was no manual (the one manual they had was from 1990 :P), and there was so much new jargon that I was unfamiliar with that my head spun. And all the while I kept feeling horribly inadequate for not understanding everything right then and there and mastering my new job on the spot (not that anyone knows what my job actually is, and my supervisor hasn't even told me what it is, in so many words. I wish he'd actually define my duties for me...) and pitching in and helping people.
So, yeah. I kept trying to tell myself that it wasn't my fault, that I didn't suck, that I had been hired yesterday afternoon and told to come in the next day, and that Natalie had been given no warning at all that I was coming in and therefore had nothing prepared for me. It didn't really help much.
So, I spent most of the day trying to teach myself an unfamiliar database with completely arbitrary commands in a system in which I don't even have my own login on a computer without a mouse. Please kill me now.
I learned the term OS&D today, which means Overage, Shortage and Damage. This is one of the departments I'll be reporting to. Don't ask me what the other departments are, because I don't know. They haven't told me yet, although apparently the guy's name is Robert. *sigh* Natalie is OS&D. Oh, and then I discovered more fun terms like "skid" and "pallet" and "CSD" and "BRD report." Don't ask me what those are, because I don't know. "Skids" and "pallets" are, as far as I can tell, either containers or smallish platforms used to load several cartons of goods at once on a truck. So you'll ask a driver how many "pallets" he has on his truck, or how many "skids." O_o
Am muy confused.
Oh, and let's not forget everyone's favourite, the "Bill of Lading." Yes, another word I've never heard of. Apparently it's a type of shipping document. Then there are the p.o.'s, which are one of the few things I was familiar with, and the "load stop" (still don't know what that is), and any number of other terms which will doubtless haunt me this week.
Anyway, everyone was really nice with me, so that was good. I got introduced all around by Nat, who seemed genuinely appalled at our supervisor's lack of hospitality toward me. Maybe he's still suspicious of me because of my good C.V. (*sigh* Is it my fault the rest of them didn't go to University? Come on!), but everyone else was friendly and welcoming, although naturally everything is so busy around there that there wasn't much time to get to know each other. That, and it works on a shift schedule, so no one has exactly the same lunch hour, which is too bad.
I start again at 8:00 tomorrow morning. I can only hope they'll have found something for me to learn. :P
In other, even more depressing news, my uncle Tony has taken a turn for the worse. After months of crippling radiation therapy, they declared that they had beaten back his lung cancer and "bought" him two years.
Then over Memorial Day weekend he was admitted into the hospital with what seemed to be pneumonia-like symptoms. They treated him and released him a few days later, but he relapsed and now he's in the hospital again.
The cancer has metastasized to his other lung. They say he has maybe another two weeks to live, and his primary physician agrees. Of course, they're also saying that it's possible he might last up to six months, but it's doubtful. Two weeks is the most likely scenario.
I spoke with my cousin Nora for the first time on the phone today, and I promised her I'd get in touch with my mother. I finally tracked down the number for my mother in Tours and woke her up at 2:30 in the morning with the news that her only brother and the last remaining member of her European family in North America is going to die, possibly before she can even get back from France. I hated doing it. I almost wished I could leave her in blessed ignorance to enjoy her trip without this added weight, but I knew that was horribly selfish and I knew she'd want to know.
My Uncle Tony has, to me, always been a voice on the phone. I've now met him a total of twice in my life. He's the man in the photographs, the shaking voice on the phone who tries to speak French to me. He's the man my mother calls "Hello" which my father and I always tease her about (it was her first English word, and she didn't know what it meant). She calls him "Sweetie" on the phone, and I've heard her cry because of him, because she knew him when he was beautiful and strong and young, long before he was broken.
That's because the woman who's supposed to be training me is frankly too busy to train me, and the supervisor who hired me floats around the office, also presumably too busy to train me, but managing not to look as busy.
Natalie, the nice woman I'm working with, is a hoot and a half, but going insane with work.
The company is Erb Transport, and they do food delivery, which is a fast-paced and exciting world. Or fast-paced, anyway. Everything is supposed to be somewhere yesterday, and it's always late and there always seems to be problems with everything. Which is where Nat comes in. She solves all the problems. In an ideal world, anyway.
They're backlogged six ways 'til Sunday, but I had nothing to do, which made it even worse for me. I didn't understand a damned thing that was going on, or perhaps ten or fifteen percent of what was happening. It's a completely different world, and when I fucked up even using the fax machine it was all I could do not to throw up my hands and hit my head against the nearest wall. In my defense, they have this weird-ass photocopier/fax-machine that prints out confirmations upside-down, so I thought the fax hadn't gone through properly, and I sent it twice. It wasn't huge, but it was just the cap to a long day of frustrations.
I kept trying to teach myself how to do things, but there was nothing for me to learn. There was no manual (the one manual they had was from 1990 :P), and there was so much new jargon that I was unfamiliar with that my head spun. And all the while I kept feeling horribly inadequate for not understanding everything right then and there and mastering my new job on the spot (not that anyone knows what my job actually is, and my supervisor hasn't even told me what it is, in so many words. I wish he'd actually define my duties for me...) and pitching in and helping people.
So, yeah. I kept trying to tell myself that it wasn't my fault, that I didn't suck, that I had been hired yesterday afternoon and told to come in the next day, and that Natalie had been given no warning at all that I was coming in and therefore had nothing prepared for me. It didn't really help much.
So, I spent most of the day trying to teach myself an unfamiliar database with completely arbitrary commands in a system in which I don't even have my own login on a computer without a mouse. Please kill me now.
I learned the term OS&D today, which means Overage, Shortage and Damage. This is one of the departments I'll be reporting to. Don't ask me what the other departments are, because I don't know. They haven't told me yet, although apparently the guy's name is Robert. *sigh* Natalie is OS&D. Oh, and then I discovered more fun terms like "skid" and "pallet" and "CSD" and "BRD report." Don't ask me what those are, because I don't know. "Skids" and "pallets" are, as far as I can tell, either containers or smallish platforms used to load several cartons of goods at once on a truck. So you'll ask a driver how many "pallets" he has on his truck, or how many "skids." O_o
Am muy confused.
Oh, and let's not forget everyone's favourite, the "Bill of Lading." Yes, another word I've never heard of. Apparently it's a type of shipping document. Then there are the p.o.'s, which are one of the few things I was familiar with, and the "load stop" (still don't know what that is), and any number of other terms which will doubtless haunt me this week.
Anyway, everyone was really nice with me, so that was good. I got introduced all around by Nat, who seemed genuinely appalled at our supervisor's lack of hospitality toward me. Maybe he's still suspicious of me because of my good C.V. (*sigh* Is it my fault the rest of them didn't go to University? Come on!), but everyone else was friendly and welcoming, although naturally everything is so busy around there that there wasn't much time to get to know each other. That, and it works on a shift schedule, so no one has exactly the same lunch hour, which is too bad.
I start again at 8:00 tomorrow morning. I can only hope they'll have found something for me to learn. :P
In other, even more depressing news, my uncle Tony has taken a turn for the worse. After months of crippling radiation therapy, they declared that they had beaten back his lung cancer and "bought" him two years.
Then over Memorial Day weekend he was admitted into the hospital with what seemed to be pneumonia-like symptoms. They treated him and released him a few days later, but he relapsed and now he's in the hospital again.
The cancer has metastasized to his other lung. They say he has maybe another two weeks to live, and his primary physician agrees. Of course, they're also saying that it's possible he might last up to six months, but it's doubtful. Two weeks is the most likely scenario.
I spoke with my cousin Nora for the first time on the phone today, and I promised her I'd get in touch with my mother. I finally tracked down the number for my mother in Tours and woke her up at 2:30 in the morning with the news that her only brother and the last remaining member of her European family in North America is going to die, possibly before she can even get back from France. I hated doing it. I almost wished I could leave her in blessed ignorance to enjoy her trip without this added weight, but I knew that was horribly selfish and I knew she'd want to know.
My Uncle Tony has, to me, always been a voice on the phone. I've now met him a total of twice in my life. He's the man in the photographs, the shaking voice on the phone who tries to speak French to me. He's the man my mother calls "Hello" which my father and I always tease her about (it was her first English word, and she didn't know what it meant). She calls him "Sweetie" on the phone, and I've heard her cry because of him, because she knew him when he was beautiful and strong and young, long before he was broken.
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no subject
Date: 2004-06-15 09:52 pm (UTC)From my stint in manufacturing/QA, that's how I've heard it. More specifically, the pallet is the wooden platform that the forklifts carry, and a skid is the loaded pallet. Although they're pretty much interchangable.
The Bill of Lading is muy important - proves what was shipped.
no subject
Date: 2004-06-16 12:51 am (UTC)It does sound like you are learning a LOT already on this job. It is NOT YOUR FAULT if you don't know what to do if they haven't told you your job expectations nor how to do it. Just watch and learn as much as you can. OS&D = Oh Shit and Die. Well, that's what's I thought. :) It sounds like a very high stress environment. If you are able to NOT TAKE IT PERSONALLY you will do fine. If you do feel it's your fault if something doesn't get fixed or doesn't happen correctly the first time, it's likely to suck. Practice remembering that the customers are not mad at you, but at the situation and that it is not your fault and you will just do the best you can to help those that request it. Hugs.. Hang in there!
no subject
Date: 2004-06-16 03:49 am (UTC)With you work: I get it. when I was at the hotel I screwed up the fax machine a few times myself. They are all so different! Each one I have used seems to be a new and exciting mission to make my life hell. Believe me, you will either get the hang of it or dread using it every time, LOL. :) Hopefully there will be a day when you can snag someone and say "Look, your fax machine has fangs, teach me now or I will scream".
You already got the definitions for the words you were looking for, so I would bore you with repeats, so take a deep breath and repeat after me "No one can learn a new job in one day" just say it a lot and don't be afraid to interupt to ask questions, okay? That woman training you? Tell her that you want to help lighten her load, so if she could slow down for a minute and give you something to do and show you how to do it, it will help her immensly and be worth her time. Really hon, you will be FINE, you are just out of practice is all. :)
no subject
Date: 2004-06-16 06:30 am (UTC):: schnugs ::
And re: the job... it is their responsibility, duty and commitment to you as employers to TRAIN you. Not yours to learn on the spot without guidance. They are the ones not doing their jobs properly here in not ensuring that they give you the right tools to work with. Just saying.
:: hugs ::
no subject
Date: 2004-06-16 07:20 am (UTC)And, on the job front, I can really sympathize. When I started here, they were right in the final stages of the Oxford project, and everyone was so busy I was lucky to get anything in the way of training. Mostly what I had to do was just keep asking when I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing, even if it meant interrupting them - because, ultimately, things will be a lot more efficient if I'm doing the right thing and not screwing it up somehow, so they don't have to fix it for me later. Basically, as others have said, it's their responsibility to train you, but if they're dropping the ball, you have to be proactive (gah, hate that word!) and ask for instructions, multiple times if necessary. It might take weeks to straighten things out so that you get everything right, but it will happen eventually.
Hopefully today will go more smoothly, now that this Natalie knows to expect you. You can do it! Good luck :)
no subject
Date: 2004-06-16 12:15 pm (UTC)People above seem to have said most of what I'd say, but here's a little more...
Date: 2004-06-16 12:25 pm (UTC)Relax (if you can do that), go to the job and keep plucking away at stuff you don't understand. The only way you'll absorb all of it is by osmosis, since they don't have any up to date books... even the outdated manual may be of some use, but if there is modern material (the database, for instnace) you might want to put that on a higher priority. Depends on if the database is comprehensible enough or not. It's good that Natalie and you are getting along... it might put you at greater ease when you need to ask her things. Given how frantic things are, it seems there never is a good time to ask things... you just have to ask when you can, otherwise you're spinning your wheels doing nothing.
I'm terribly sorry to hear about your Uncle Tony. It's never easy.
Re: People above seem to have said most of what I'd say, but here's a little more...
Date: 2004-06-16 03:16 pm (UTC)I read the manual, and I've been poking at the database as much as I can, but without knowing what commands take me from one screen to the next, and without the codes to unlock some of the other stuff, I'm getting blocked on a lot of fronts.
I'll get there eventually, but it's frustrating right now.
Re: People above seem to have said most of what I'd say, but here's a little more...
Date: 2004-06-16 04:29 pm (UTC)That sounds irritating... but it'll get better in time.